it's coming up tonight on the big picture the f.b.i. has announced and is showing pictures of two suspects in the boston marathon bombing and yesterday the senate rejected a gun background check bill that ninety percent of the american people support promises the president made after newtown looks to be broken are senators supporters supposed to represent the people not the n.r.a. also last month the obama administration announced it would transfer authority over the drone program from the cia to the pentagon how did the teligent agency get the power to wage war and later in the show is a your take by take a live segment your chance to call in and ask a question or make a comment live here. did you know this the f.b.i. has identified two suspects behind monday's bombings in boston although as of yet

no information has come to light regarding the identities of these two individuals investigators have released surveillance video showing two backpack wearing males near the site of the attacks just minutes before the bombs went off photos are available at f.b.i. dod gov if you have any information call the f.b.i. tip line at one eight hundred call if the i or go to boston marathon tips f.b.i. . you also need to know this although violence has dominated the news this week our government has once again failed to pass meaningful legislation that would go a long way toward curbing this country's ongoing plague of gun violence why our elected representatives are shills shills for an organization that until the one nine hundred seventy s. was nothing more than a club for sportsmen and hunting in those states yesterday afternoon the united states senate rejected the mansion to me compromise amendment that would have expanded background checks for gun purchases.

on his vote the yeas are fifty four the nays are forty six under the previous order requiring sixty votes to be adopted this amendment the admin meant is not agreed to time. mr president. although the media has taken to referring to the measure as a gun control bill i'd hesitate to call it that what the senate voted down yesterday was well accounts a moderate and practical extension of already existing rules governing the sale receipt of firearms the proposed amendment did not include a ball a ban on assault weapons didn't create a national gun registry and it should according to the constitution of become the law as it got more than fifty votes in the u.s. senate more than fifty percent but the republicans chose to filibuster it and for spineless democrats joined them why is the national rifle association and its

allies in the senate have spent the last week spreading lies and misinformation about the mansion to meet compromise your exchange with chuck schumer on the senate floor yesterday texas senator ted cruz warned that passing a bad background check law would eventually lead to some kind of orwellian gun registry that the bill explicitly actually prohibited in my opinion adopting mandatory federal government background checks for purely private transactions between law abiding citizens puts us in x. or ugly on the path. to a push for universal for for a federal right on my car we can detect it and senator schumer may have found cruz's remarks funny but now it's a texas senator's having the last laugh once again wayne la pierre got his way the n.r.a. opened up its lobbying arm in one thousand nine hundred eighty five as this chart shows in every election cycle over the past few decades the vast majority of its donations have gone to republicans red state democrats like those who joined the

senate republicans in voting down the background check bill fear the n.r.a. and its rating system as well even though there is no evidence that the n.r.a. has endorsed what actually helps them win electoral votes in an editorial published in the new york times yesterday former congresswoman gabby giffords of arizona a victim of gun violence herself slammed the senators who voted against the mansion to me compromise for giving in to base political interests i was elected six times to represent southern arizona she said in the state legislature and then in congress i know what a complicated issue is i know what it feels like to take a tough vote this is that was neither these senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interest like the national rifle association which in the last election spy cycle spent around twenty five million dollars on contributions lobbying and outside spending hours with different says she's furious some of the narrow political cowardice and

failure to support what was and still is an overwhelmingly popular measure that ninety percent of americans who support expanded background checks are furious too furious that their elected representatives care more about the interests of the gun manufacturing industry and its n.r.a. lobby than what their actual constituents want to make want to do to make their communities safer for more on this i'm joined by patricia mace summation survivor of the tucson arizona shooting witness yesterday's defeat of the gun control bill in our dean jeffries who sixteen year old daughter bushnell was one of four teens killed in a drive by shooting here. in washington d.c. . attrition or dean thank you so much for being with us tonight thank you for having us appreciate it patricia the clip we showed you had shame on you. joe biden responding to it that was you speaking it was what provoked it. if people provoked it and we had gotten up to leave because we didn't want to hear any more

and if we were walking out i just it went from sadness to madness and it made me so angry that i just decided i could not. let this opportunity with them milling around like the world goes on for them in their safe. places in the senate and in the house where you have to pass a background check and are passed a security check after security check to get in and they're just down there calmly chit chatting with each other and i decided i could no longer take it i needed to let them know that they were soulless and that they had shame. and if they do and they did. you you. have been personally affected by gun violence you were you were there yesterday at the summit yes i was sitting in front of that church ok so so you were all be i'd like to get your thoughts on

something. senator rand paul said of the president responded to this is rand paul first of all basically calling out you to areas. when i see the father and the mothers in them testifying and i know they're coming voluntarily and they they want to come and be part of this debate was still saddens me used to see them and i think that. in some cases the president has used them as props. the president responded with this. avert folks say that having the families of victims lobby for this legislation was somehow misplaced. a prop somebody call them do we really think that thousands of families whose lives have been shattered by gun violence don't have a right to weigh in on this issue and we think their their emotions their loss is not relevant to this debate. do you know i'm curious your thoughts on what senator paul and the many other right wing radio has been slaughtered this week with that

sort of and what the president's. might think he's heartless and i think it's a disrespectful statement he being rand paul yes because i my daughter was shot and i hate what the make a forty seven and i think it's far. overdue for faces to actually be put out there so you can see who's being affected we're not just numbers we're not just you know body bags we're not just the two sticks we're actually you know civilized human beings that are educated and articulate and doing all the things live in the american joint and it's been shattered by one boy you know all that metal and flesh to does not you know mesh well together and i just think it's very hard listen i'm not a prop and i don't think anyone else feels that way and you know i think it's easy for someone to stand back who's never been in this situation and feel that you're being used in you know as a puppet or something to that effect and he's right i do this voluntarily i don't

get paid to do it i have a full time job i am not a prop and i don't feel that any other family i'm not trying to speak for anyone else but i'm sure they do not feel that way and for someone to be that insensitive once again just shows that you know he's very detached from reality and the rest of the world. tourist resorts to it looks like he wanted to say something somebody told me one time you know you're being used in this effort and i said you know there's many forms of the word use and what comes next is useful and if i can be useful because of my experience that's what i'm going to be useful and i can take all the criticism they can throw at me i used to think that the worst thing i had this vision in my mind roxanne and john green holding the lifeless body of little christina taylor thank you. i thought that it couldn't get any worse than that but there's one thing that's worse and that's the people of newtown they did not have

the privilege of holding the bodies of their children one more time before they buried him and that you guys were so very much a part of so many but what is related jane dorothy it sister of mary sherlock told me that her sister was so badly mutilated that they had to identify her by her school badge her family did not get to see her remains it gives new meaning to the word remains one of the assault weapons can totally dismember almost cut in half one little boy had eleven bullets those bullets left holes the size of baseballs in those children and in those adults and you know i think that these senators need to be faced with that there are faces and emotions that go with dead bodies and it's not pretty or do we just have about a minute half left here what what is next is this this is this is going to come

before the senate again should people be calling their senators is that what what what is your call for the call for action is just what we've been doing continue to you know reach out to the senators and i think the next thing should be. i feel like maybe the next set of pictures that they see should be the bloody bodies my daughter's head was blown wide open her ear was missing and i think that's what they need to see because that's what gun violence looks like it doesn't look like these beautiful smiles and happy faces and you know us on vacation any longer so maybe they need to start looking at the pictures of these dead bodies or maybe come from behind their desk in their nice posh offices in d.c. and come to some of these you know gun sites and look at these bodies afterwards and then tell me if they still agree that there's nothing that should be done with you patricia. this was all of a sudden in the thirty seconds we have left do you see anything happening in the

house of representatives which is entirely controlled by the republicans i think that should be very afraid because the people are standing up every text that i got today from friends and relatives around the country that do it push them do not let them get away not even get a little vote. i talked to nancy pelosi today and she says they're pushing oh good ok we'll see how those goes thank you both for being here and it's so much appreciate your time. are you both so thank you thank you very much. after the break over the past decade the cia has come to dominate american foreign policy as perhaps never before how did that agency become a paramilitary force that is today story and randall b. woods and just about. a clear image of iraq after. twenty day taxi trip through the

country. the. danger. clear evidence from north to south. of iraqi tragedy. after the war waiting for peace. talks e t. is.

it as the rest of the news a new report released by the constitution project's task force on detainee treatment offers damning new conclusions about the use of torture during the so-called war on terror according to the report the nation's most senior officials

to some of their actions and failures to act in the months and years of mediately fall and september eleventh attacks bear all to meet responsibility for allowing and contributing to the spread of illegal and improper interrogation techniques used by some u.s. personnel on detainees in several theaters. although approved by senior members of the bush administration the detainee torture program was created and operated largely by the central intelligence agency over the past decade the cia has branched out from this traditional role as an intelligence gathering agency using extrajudicial powers granted to it by the executive branch it has largely morphed into a paramilitary organization authorized to torture at will and capable of waging war at a moment's notice anywhere in the world by our nation's drone program although the obama administration announced in march it will transfer authority over the drone program to the department and how it's questions remain about that agency's

increasingly extra political powers just how powerful is the cia why well it wasn't always this way how did it become this way for now for more on this i'm joined now by historian randall b. woods author of shadow warrior william egan coldly and the cia program thank you thanks for joining us. and give us a brief history the cia it's it was the o.s.'s before the cia it was sued the the country didn't have. an intelligence service until world war two we never had a peacetime intelligence service we had donovan persuaded president truman and congress to convert the u.s.s. into the sea. u.s.s. had come out of world war two as you see i was it was an espionage sabotage counter kensington offices office of strategic services so and bill cosby the man i write about was world war two hero he was so with behind enemy lines to win the cia was

created to many people in vision it is merely an intelligence gathering operation espionage should counterspy not was that not its mandate it was its mandate but colby who was one of the fathers of covert action and unconventional warfare psychological warfare joined the agency in one nine hundred fifty. he and others created a nother culture within the cia. which emphasizes nation building counterterrorism pacification. and. that. had some purchase during the eisenhower administration but you don't see it really becoming full blown until vietnam you know back back in the in the late sixty's early seventy's correct me if i'm wrong on this there was a book that came out which i read about this culture war within the cia and it was about the cowboys and the eastern elite i forget the phrase they used for them but it was basically the cowboys was one of the you know these knuckle draggers was one

of the it was used for for for practice for you know guerrillas for care practitioners of counterinsurgency grooming warfare unconventional for versus the the intelligence gatherers the john cover right a locker right types right who who wanted to act with dignity and within the law by a large no i would not say that about anybody ok so why does an organization that is it is extra legal how did the. how is it extralegal if it's authorized by by legislation its activities are designed we have no we have no official secrets act in this country but the model was six in which it was domestic and foreign but the object is to protect the nation's security and in one nine hundred fifty three general james doolittle wrote a secret report for the truman administration who said if we're going to defeat the soviet union who observe no rules and will go to any links we're going to have to

create an agency which observes no rules and will go to any length so we become the enemy. if you're going to i mean they're exactly at wailea leads that's the logic and certainly that seems to have been the logic of the bush administration and it seems in retrospect i mean many of us at the time were saying this is going to backfire it seems to have backfired. you know the one the world is condemning us for torture because we're going after people who are torturers and killers that's not a good thing for us well in the other. and i'm on a more practical level there are people who argue and colby argued this to a certain extent that that if you use a technique if you use torture to get information you're going to get bad information but but certainly that still obviously. very debated issue within the intelligence community. and that culture war within the cia that i read about in the sixty's or seventy's or whatever that book came out. who won that war is

still going on while i think the. covert action people bay of pigs. the plot to assassinate castro. can insertions pacification in the philippines in malaysia in southeast asia the hot tired of that really was in the one nine hundred fifty s. and one nine hundred sixty s. . the it began to decline dramatically you see it again with iran contra. any really see it reemerge with. the rise of international terrorism or the perceived threat of international terrorism primarily because you're dealing with an enemy that is not immediately identifiable with a national government it's transnational it's it it operates between the seams in the international system and so i think that's one of the things that's led to a revival of tactics that. the u.s.

used really against the. in the phoenix program in the late one nine hundred sixty s. in fact colby who headed the who oversaw the phoenix program phoenix the drone program is a reincarnation of the phoenix program phoenix program. intelligence south american television. a cadre and eliminated them some twenty thousand of them killed of. what from the air with no no no can through through armed teams through conventional wood through sas nation through killing. and the drone program is uses the same techniques to gather information and and target individuals is just the technology that's used to eliminate them which is different as as time moves on the ideology moves on is an arguably a necessary evil as it were or maybe not even an evil and necessary part of government to have an intelligence service that obsolete absolutely there is no no

no modern government no modern society. i don't know whether it's morally defensible defensible. but in terms of national security in terms of self-preservation absolutely has the cia gone beyond its its mandate or beyond a point where. it is now actually hurting its own goals it that that's what that was my sense of the whole you know the guy hang in there with the right torture thing and is that this this is not helping us but it it may help in the short run but it certainly doesn't help in the long run and if you're if you're waging a war for hearts and minds. it's probably counterproductive what has happened to the and again correct me if i mean you know this is about i always thought that the f.b.i. did domestic the cia did international that there was a wall between the two they could communicate to

a certain amount extent but they didn't step into each other's territory unless absolutely necessary is that still the case and if one did a system here's why i think it i think i think there is a separation colby was the director of central intelligence when the so-called family jewels came out to the secrets the c.i. secrets. for assassination of foreign leaders penetration of. domestic agencies like the nationals students association. colby is a controversial figure because he favored cooperating with congress he favored negotiating a and an agreement with congress that would establish the parameters in which the c.i. could operate that went against the standard culture which which held that espionage is in total total sleekly complete secrecy right so really from the one nine hundred seventy s. on when you had the church committee investigations and colby's willingness to

cooperate with them to a certain degree the cia has had to negotiate its program with congress and congress can say what it's war what it wants but the people on the only intelligence committees and subcommittees were informed about what was going on which is a good thing it seems yeah it is but this is not congress cannot come back now and say the cia was acting as a rogue elephant. it's a no no in the in the middle we have left as a historian who's looked at the whole arc of the cia any thoughts on the direction that they should be going right now or any changes they should be making. i don't know whether you saw. i don't know whether you saw the movie that. this controversy over we know it i know i did yeah well it is with the principal characters a cia person who's been involved in torture and being asked where do we go from here and the country faces a crossroad the intelligence agency faces

a crossroads can it get its job done without torture can it. can protect the country security without torture it's got to it's got to decide that my impression is that they they have decided that they have to find. all options alternatives to what was done it before in guantanamo. well let's hope they work in there and they're done well brenda woods thank you very thanks for having me. thank. crazy alert the craft beer craze has taken over off over the last decade and brewers of all over the united states and the world of use their beverages newfound popularity to experiment with new and exciting flavors if you walk into your local liquor store you can find everything from blueberry wheat beers to milk chocolate

stouts now one japanese brewery sank gallon is making is taking beer experimentation to a whole new level making elephant beer that's right elephant. works the brewmasters feed richen flavorful coffee beans to one of their specially picked asian elephants on the elephants eventually release the beans and tracks. all sorts of pungent earthly flavors you know just the sort of thing you want your frothy group the birds then combine the beans with a traditional dark beer recipe mixing together all the flavors absorbed in the elephant's intestines with the ridge flavors of a chocolate spout the result according to one courageous reviewer aka twenty four news is quote an initial bitterness washed over by a wave of sweetness sounds absolutely prompts. coming up the phone lines are now open for your take my take live segment so if you want the chance to ask me a question live on the big picture give us

a call to our two nine zero four twenty one thirty four go to talk to you after the break. let me let me respond or don't let me ask you a question from. here on this network is what we're having a debate we have our knives out. but if you feel the slightest about staying there again you're in a situation where b. and i don't agree to talk about the surveillance may.

potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit stunning in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but what we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more patrie down the line there's still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight. jason it is kind of pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout much of it might still be slow to be driving license of emergency vehicles are exceptions.

thanks. kitty. the book about international and war in the very heart of moscow.